The Drupal

Decision

Stephen Sanzo | Director of Marketing and Business Development | Isovera

ssanzo@isovera.com

www.isovera.com

Agenda

Open Source

The Big Three

Why Drupal?OverviewFeaturesExamplesUnder the Hood

Questions (non-technical, please)

Open Source Software

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“Let the code be available to all!”

Software that is available in source code form for which the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software.

Adoption of open-source software models has resulted in savings of about $60 billion per year to consumers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Open Source Software

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However…

Open source doesn't just mean access to the source code. The distribution terms of open-source software must comply criteria established by the Open Source Initiative.

http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd

Open Source Software

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Free as in…

Not this…

Open Source CMS

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Advantages for Open Source CMS

No licensing fees - allows you to obtain enterprise quality software at little to no cost

Vendor flexibility - you can choose whether or not you want to hire a vendor to help you customize, implement, and support it, or do this internally. If at any point along the way you decide you don’t like your vendor, you are free to find another.

Software flexibility – in many cases, proprietary software is slow to react to the markets needs. The wider the distribution of an open source CMS means a larger user base and user community: more people work on the software, patch bugs, create contributed modules, create new and better versions, etc.

Open Source CMS

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Things to consider before moving to an open source CMS

Implementation Costs – for features that are outside the existing capability of the CMS you generally need an experienced developer.

No direct support – Although you can purchase support contracts from third-party vendors, open source is a “community.” For example, there is no Drupal 800 number for support. Players like Acquia are emerging to fill this void.

Open Source CMS Top 20*

CMS Made Simple

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DotNetNuke

Drupale107

eZ Publish Jahia

Joomla! Liferay

MODx

OpenCms

phpWebSitePlone

SilverStripe

TextpatternTikiWiki

Typo3

Umbraco

WordPressXoops

Alfresco

*Based on level of adoption and brandstrength as reported in 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report

Open Source CMS “Big 3”

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*Based on level of adoption and brandstrength as reported in 2009 Open Source CMS Market Share Report

WordPress

Installs easily – up and running quickly

Polished interface – easy for novice to add text and images

Site administration (installing upgrades, add features) fairly easy

Very limited structural flexibility for core system

Limited support for user roles

Summary

–

a good choice for smaller and structurally simple sites.

Joomla

Good “all around” system

Strong infrastructure to support sites of different sizes

Limited flexibility in structuring content types

Cumbersome to update

Summary –

strong, but not very flexible when thinking outside the box

Drupal

Flexible and powerful

Robust capabilities for Web 2.0 and community functionality

Easy to update content

Configuring site is complex – may need outside help(easier with Drupal 7 and also Drupal Gardens from Acquia)

Flexibility = many ways to skin a cat. Need to think through what is best

Summary

–

robust and flexible, provides most upside. Often need assistance to realize full potential

How do you choose?

Determine level of customization

What are your workflow needs?

Talk to others.

Read, research, and try them out.

Know your own “must-have’s” and “like-to-have’s”

How do you choose?

http://www.idealware.org/reports/2010-os-cms

Is Drupal

For You?

Drupal

Snapshot

Developed in 2001 by Dries Buytaert

PHP- and MySQL-based system

Drupal is derived from the dutch word “druppel” which means “drop” – as in water droplet.

Over 500,000 subscribed members of the “community” – over 5000 active developers

Over 8000 modules

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Cool Drupal

Features includes Drupal

v6 and the new v7!

Create your own content types – create as many as you like without programming knowledge

Create your own user types – endless custom user roles depending on access levels and/or user experience

Advanced URL control – custom URLs/clean URLs – helps with organization and SEO

Revision control – Can go back to old revisions. Great for the “oops!”

Custom taxonomy for different sections. Excellent for targeting keywords for SEO

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http://tips.webdesign10.com/drupal/about-drupal-311.html

Flexibility

Function-rich websites of all shapes and sizes

Multi-sites

Blogs

Digital libraries

Interactive Publications

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Security

According to IBM’s report on open source security, most consider open source software as secure or more secure than commercial software.

Larger community = quicker catches and quicker fixes

The White House (www.whitehouse.gov) switched to Drupal because of its security reputation.

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http://drupal.org/documentation/is-drupal-secure

Is Drupal

(and open source, in general) secure?

Drupal

Modules

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Software that extends Drupal functionality

Vanilla Drupal is built using a set of core Modules

Extra features can be added to Drupal using Contributed Modules

Unique functionality to meet your needs can be added to Drupal by using Custom Modules

Powerful Community + Module Development = many options and features

Compatibility and Integration

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The power of the Drupal

development community

provides the ability to integrate and leverage other powerful software technologies. For example:

• Moodle

(learning management)

• Ubercart

(e-commerce)

• CiviCRM

(association management)

• Constant Contact (email)

• Salesforce

(CRM)

Drupal

Sites Great for basic sites…

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Drupal

Sites Or more complex sites…

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Drupal

Sites Some features

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Integrated social media

E-commerce services

Community member profiles

Event management capabilities

The ability for a user to login to one site and be simultaneously logged-in to the other sites

Real-time, user driven product demonstration

Wiki sites for documentation and other resources

Sophisticated search capabilities

Issue tracking/ticketing

Integration with CRM and marketing automation

Drupal

Sites Libraries…

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Under the Hood…

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Under the Hood…

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To Hire or Not to Hire?

In-house technical and design resources

Understanding of the web development process

Level of customization

Budget factorsDo you get what you pay for? What is the average rate?“The Drupal Expert” - assessing level of expertise

Factors:

Steve’s Bad Analogies

Where do you want to be?

Questions?

Contact info

Stephen Sanzo | Isovera, Inc.Director of Marketing and Business Development460 Totten Pond RoadWaltham, MA 02451Direct phone: 781.547.8435ssanzo@isovera.com | www.isovera.com